NCR – No Carbon Required Books

The battery free backup to your business processes

NCR – No Carbon Required, a description that would draw blank looks for most people these days, especially if they are under 30. Another item from the pre-information age where everything had to be written down and stored somewhere for reference. Yet as we highlighted in the article When your online business gets interrupted, even the biggest companies can have their online systems fail them. A failure that not cost them in lost business but ongoing damage to their reputation. NCR books represent a system that can serve both a core part of a business’s operation or as a backup should their digital systems fail. So let’s talk about them and how they can help your business

What is NCR?

We last talked about NCR (No Carbon Required) printing back in 2015, so it was high time we did an update on the subject. NCR is a replacement for the even older technology of Carbon Paper, a sheet of  paper with a coating of carbon in a wax. You used Carbon Paper by placing it between two sheets of normal paper and the pressure of writing or typing on the upper sheet would melt the wax enough to leave a copy of the marks on the lower sheet. NCR takes it one step further by adding the coating directly to the papers on the touching sides of the sheets. These coatings are special chemicals that will only leave a mark when pressed together so only where there is pressure on the upper sheet do the chemicals on the two sheets mix to leave a ‘stain’ on the lower sheet.

Modern NCR books or pads can have many layers of these impregnated sheets together, each copying the marks from one layer to the next.  (Though it’s uncommon to see books with more than three layers per set of sheets.) These sheets are often colour coded too to ensure that each copy goes to the right person, with the most common combo being white top sheet, yellow the second sheet, and pink the third sheet if needed. Though you’re not limited to those colours or that order. NCR pages are often referred to having sets of one each of the sheets in a repeating cycle as most NCR products are used with a serial number and each set is a unique serial number. For some situations you can even print on the side where the ‘carbon’ layer is, which is useful for printing terms and conditions.

Depending on what is needed the NCR sheets can be supplied as stapled books where the sheets other than base one are perforated to tear out, pads so all the sheets are easy to remove, or even loose sets so only each unique set is bound together. Books and pads will have a fold over writing flap that goes under the set so when the person writes on them only that set is effected.

Where are NCR sheets used?

The most common form of NCR is the form of purchase order and invoice books, where you need the information to be accurate. Another use is for agreements or lease forms where you need to record a signature/s and all parties need copies of the paperwork. Many businesses also find NCR books useful when they take in items for repairs or servicing, as the hard copy spells out the nature of the servicing and provides a step by step checklist of what needs to be done.  We cover examples of how they are used in How Can NCR Books Work For You so I won’t cover the same ground here.

Why still use them?

Simple, they don’t need batteries, network connection, or a radio signal. That might not seem like much, but for many businesses that can make a world of difference. We all know how patchy New Zealand’s cell phone reception can be, so for some businesses having an online connection is not practical, or is too expensive for use in locations where they work. There are also situations where a customer needs a physical receipt or proof of compliance as soon as the job is done. As we have also discussed, it’s good practice to have an alternative system when you can’t get to a computer or the internet connection is down.
The reality is that most ‘clerical’ processes that are done on the cloud, were done on NCR books. With careful planning those NCR books can match the online systems allowing for seamless transition between digital and physical as the situation requires. And if you need to enter in the information to the online systems at a later point, proper planning in the form design will minimise the effort required.

Here at Copy Express, we have designed in parallel both Adobe Acrobat PDF forms and NCR pages allowing the client to have identical page designs both for the cloud and the physical world. This meant that when they had to use the NCR books, they could just scan in the page for storage electronically, or type in the information on the form and have that and the physical match.

Where do I get them?

From Copy Express obviously. You could go with a generic NCR book that can be found in most stationery stores. But with generic designs means you don’t have a lot of choices of what information you have in them. Also do you really want to be writing your business information on each set every time you have to use one? Also, while we have to charge for setting up a production run of books on top of the book cost, When you order 5 or 6 books at a time, that setup cost spreads out enough that you’re only paying a couple of dollars more over the generic books but with it set up to fit your needs exactly.

Want to learn more about NCR Books and Pads? Give us a call or email and we’ll be happy to discuss options with you. We will help you find the perfect ‘no batteries required’ back up to your business processes that will be cost effective and works the way you need it too.